Hearing-impaired individuals may benefit from communication systems and devices configured to provide assistance in order to communicate with other individuals over a communication network. For example, assistive communication services (e.g., relay services) have been established to provide assistive services (e.g., text captions, sign language interpretive services, etc.) to the hearing-impaired user communicating with a communication device (e.g., caption phone, video phone, etc.) that is specifically configured to communicate with the communication service.
Such services and/or communication devices may be at least partially subsidized so that the services and communication devices may not be cost prohibitive for the hearing-impaired user. These subsidies may be provided by the government, which may pay for the communication devices as well as the per minute charges for using the assistive communication services. In some instances, hearing-impaired individuals may be required to meet minimum requirements to qualify for receiving the subsidy for the communication devices and services. For example, a hearing-impaired individual may, for example, be required to receive a certification from a hearing-care professional (e.g., audiologist, ear, nose, and throat doctor, family physician, hearing instrument specialist (HIS), etc.) certifying that the individual meets the standard for being considered hearing-impaired to qualify for the subsidy, or in some situations for participation in the services at all.
To obtain a certification of hearing loss, the hearing-impaired individual may visit with a hearing-care professional, who may complete a paper certification form to certify that the hearing-impaired individual has hearing loss. Typically, the hearing-care professional manually completes a paper copy of the certification form. The completed certification form may then be faxed, emailed, or mailed to a communication device provider by the hearing-care professional or the hearing-impaired individual. Unfortunately, completion and submission of the certification form requires the hearing-impaired individual to visit with a hearing-care professional, obtain the completed certification form from the hearing-care professional, and ensure that the signed certification form is transmitted to a communication service provider. The communication service provider then manually enters the data from the certification form into customer tracking software of the communication service provider. Because of the multiple steps and parties involved, the certification process can be time consuming, cumbersome, confusing, and undesirable and may hinder individuals with hearing impairment from completing the steps necessary for qualifying for the services.